New Portfolio Site
My travel photography portfolio site had been looking a little bit dated, so I’ve gone ahead and updated the look of it and added a whole bunch of new content as well. Please have a visit and let me know what you think!
Portfolio Site Updated
The portfolio site that showcases a relatively tight collection of my images is now sporting a new design that better harmonizes with my blog. It’s a cosmetic change only, so if you’ve already checked out all the images there, I’m afraid there won’t be any surprises, but it’s a good excuse to go check out some photos anyway.
I hope you enjoy it!
Photo of the Day – Laptop Shot
Time for the next opportunity to showcase an image from portfolio site. To mix things up, this one isn’t a travel image but instead is from my portfolio of product photography and it’s one of my most recent shots.
Click on the thumbnail to see the full size:
Yes, it’s a laptop. But, the fun of it all is taking a fairly ordinary object in a plain setting and getting your lighting just right so that the thing just looks cool.
Getting initial lights set up is usually pretty quick for this sort of shot, but the details are where the success of the shot lives. You have to think about the highlight on the right side of the image that defines the edge of the laptop screen (a honeycombed light coming from the back right).
You have to think about how you will give the keys texture and depth (another honeycombed light, this time from the back left that just skims across the surface of the keys, but is blocked from hitting the screen).
You have to think about how you are going to give more form to the subject by letting light fall off on its surfaces (small, close lights at just the right angles without much fill, so that you can get more fall off going into a bit of shadow).
More than anything, it’s an exercise in patience. Have an idea in your head of how you want it to look then start adding in the pieces to make that happen.
Photo of the Day – Feb. 16, 2009
Making good on my promise to do a bit of photoblogging, here’s the first in what will hopefully be a series of posts looking at the photos on my new portfolio site: darbysawchuk.com.
First up is one of my more recent travel images. Click on the thumbnail to see the full size:
This image was shot in Barcelona, Spain in the Gothic Quarter. The narrow alleys made for lovely shafts of light that burst through the darkness in the morning. It was tricky, however, to find a spot where the light wasn’t so overpowering that the background disappeared completely into darkness.
The other tricky part is, of course, being patient enough to someone interesting enough to walk past to round out the picture. This might be a pretty enough location shot, but with the man (and his companion pigeon) take it up a level and make the scene.
At first, I was unsure of the detail of the Christmas lights creeping into the top of the frame, but I’ve settled on liking them. Something about this fellow makes him look like he could be a musician and those notes at the top fit in nicely with him.
New Portfolio Site: darbysawchuk.com
Time for a wee bit of showing off…
My portfolio site was rather outdated, but that is no longer the case. If you visit my portfolio site (or if you want to go straight to darbysawchuk.com – they’re both the same), you’ll find a far more up-to-date version of my work. The site still has its new car smell, so get on over there!
It should be free of bugs, but if you notice anything amiss, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know.
In the coming days, I hope to add a new type of post to this blog: brief discussions on given photos on the portfolio site. Most of my images have stories behind them and if they don’t, then maybe they will have some interesting technical details to share. So, we might get a little bit photo-bloggy for a while here. Should be fun!
Darby Sawchuk is a Canadian-born photographer who currently resides in Manchester, England. He has travelled to over 40 countries and is always adding more to the list. He creates stock for multiple agencies and is available for assignments.
+44 0790 992 8932
